Elijah's Chair

A well-known Austrian author sits in a hotel, incognito in his city of birth, with the gun he plans to use on himself next to him as he writes. He has just returned from the slaughter in Sarajevo and is working on a memoir, explaining why he can no longer go on. Richard Richter, born and orphaned during WWII and raised by a beloved aunt, has discovered a letter from his mother to his real father, and, determined to discover if his father is alive, travels to Sarajevo just as the siege breaks out in 1992. He is there for only a couple of weeks, but the people he meets, and the truths he finds, ruin him.

I was surprised by how moved I was by this story. The writer talks a lot about his feelings, moving back and forth between his current show more situation and his experiences in Sarajevo. I was quickly drawn in to the promise of the horrible discoveries Richter makes, and while my first thoughts weren't close, I was very satisfied with the story of how events closed around him and destroyed his will to live. show less

[The Judgment of Richard Richter] is a riveting and haunting story of a man who finds that everything he thought was true about himself was not. Both plot and character are a slow build. This reminds me of some of the great reads of the 19th century. This is not a feel good book; it is depressing and fatalistic. The time period is the Bosnian War and "action" shifts between Vienna and Sarajevo. This book was translated into English from Croation. The author is originally from Bosnia from which his family fled during the Bosnian War. 300 pages 5 stars

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book in exchange for a review.

After reading a quarter of the book, I've put it aside and I have no intention of returning to it. The book is about a middle aged man who discovers his background isn't quite what he thought it was and goes looking for answers. It is told in the first person. For the part I've read, the protagonist has done nothing but whinge about something awful that happened to him on his quest which he will address later. The tone is melodramatic and overwrought. Not my cup of tea.